Facebook Meets With Agency Leaders To Discuss The Next Step In Creative Advertising

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Facebook is an advertising platform that behaves like no other. So when it invited 15 agency leaders to sit down and talk about our issues, we weren't even sure where to start. Advertising is built on a model of disruption, of grabbing attention, but Facebook is not about disruption. Facebook is about creating a supportive, positive flow of people, and the platform doesn't distract from that experience. So how does a brand be intimate with a person? It's a major mindfucker. Brands want Facebook ads to look more like the rest of their stuff, to put this new thing in an old shape.

Facebook recognizes that it needs to please agencies' creative desires. And it knows what its users love: great big pictures. Okay, I hear that and think, I need a guy who's going to lay out some type on a picture? Advertisers were happy doing that for decades, but not anymore. We need unique placement—but where?

It was a very raw and open conversation, not what you'd expect if you think of Facebook as the big black fortress. We hope future meetings will be more actionable. For now, nobody walked away with an answer.